TRAI revamps rules to make number portability simpler

Telecom regulator TRAI revamped mobile number portability (MNP) rules, making the entire process faster and simpler, and prescribed two days timeline for port out requests within a service area.

Similarly, timeline of four working days has been prescribed for requests for port out from one circle to other.

The latest amendments to the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability regulations form part of the regulator's "continuous endeavour" to make the process more "subscriber-friendly", according to a statement by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Each "wrongful rejection" of the request for porting will attract penalty of up to Rs 10,000.

"Porting timeline of 2 working days has been provisioned for the requests of Intra-Licensed Service Area (Intra-LSA) numbers except the requests made under corporate category and the timelines of 4 working days has been provisioned for all the porting requests of Inter-Licensed Service Area (Inter-LSA) numbers and corporate category", TRAI said.

Besides this, other major changes have been incorporated such as the validity of the Unique Porting Code or UPC has been brought down to four days instead of a fortnight prescribed earlier, for all circles except Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East, where the validity of the said code remains unchanged, it said.